Favorite Things

Avril Lavigne's Favorite Things

Life is good for Avril Lavigne. The 27-year-old is currently at work on her upcoming fifth studio album, and first single "Here's To Never Growing Up," is poised to become one of THE songs of the summer of 2013.

The singer/songwriter is newly engaged - her boyfriend, Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, proposed in April. For Avril, worlds collide: she actually got to know Chad while working on her album.

"It was actually the first one we wrote together," Avril says of the song she and Chad were working on when they realized they had become more than friends. "The song is called, 'Let Me Go,' so later on after we were together I was like, let's change the last chorus so that it's like we’re together now... instead of it being, a break-up, separation song. Because I don’t really want that for us."

Avril stopped by iHeartRadio Headquarters recently, where she opened up about love, her new album, and which curse word she has tattoed on herself twice. Find out more about Avril by discovering some of her favorite things below.

Favorite Radio Head Song:

Creep.

Favorite Thing About Growing Up:

Learning about yourself and who you are.

Favorite thing to get drunk on:

For me, I’ve been drinking champagne these days... Mellow. Normally I’m a vodka girl, but not anymore these days [laughing]. I wouldn’t be able to wake up in the morning at all if I was hung over.

Favorite time of day to write music:

I’m a night person, so definitely at night. Probably like, yeah anywhere between, like, 5:00 to 4:00 in the morning.

Favorite place to wake up:

At home in my bed [laughing]. Because whenever I’m there, which isn’t very often, it’s like, ‘Yes my bed! Yes, my pillow [laughing].' Oh and I actually love sleeping on a tour bus believe it or not. It’s like, it’s soothing. It’s like, I don’t know what it is and being in a bunk too. Like, I have a room in the back so if I can’t sleep I go to a bunk. I don’t know why. It’s really dark.

Favorite thing to watch re-runs of:

I never really got that much into TV shows, but. I like watching, um, like all the Christmas movies they play every year like The Grinch, and all the traditional ones.

Favorite curse word:

F***, and it’s tattooed on my rib cage. I have the word f*** tattooed on me twice. That one says F You [laughs, points to the tattoo on her fingers]. Right here it doesn’t heal. I’ve had it done twice so it kind of looks like a prison tattoo... they just never healed there.

Favorite way to waste time:

Going online maybe? TV and emails.

Favorite color you’ve ever dyed your hair:

Green.

Favorite way to piss of your manager:

By not answering my emails or my text messages. I get so many emails, it’s ridiculous.

Favorite song to belt:

My favorite song of mine on stage “I’m with you.” I belt that one.

Favorite thing to sing about:

I’ve written so many songs about love, and on this album, I’m going to go somewhere else... other subjects like, there’s a song called “Rock N Roll” and a song called “Hello Kitty,” and, “Seventeen” [that deal with] other topics. So, I’m happy about that. I have so many boy-bashing, or break-up and love songs... there are a lot of different, other topics on this album.

The album's really diverse, there are more pop songs like ["Here's To Never Growing Up"], but it's got piano ballads, and I have a duet with Chad, and I have a rock tune called “Bad Girl,” and Marilyn Manson sings on it. My “Hello Kitty” song has like, kind of an electronic feel. It’s all over the place.

Favorite gift you ever received from a fan:

In Japan, they write on stationary and they’re very proper over there, and they write really nice letters. They’ve got a lot of Hello Kitty stationary and little Hello Kitty gifts. I have a storage unit, and I keep all my fan mail. That’s funny now that I think about it, you don’t get as much fan mail these days because everyone is tweeting you. The stuff that they send though in the mail, sometimes it’s amazing art, pictures that they like make with your logo, with your image and all. I used to have it all under my bed on my first record because I still lived with my parents. There was fan mail under my bed! Now I’ve got a storage unit.

Favorite thing about anticipating the release of new music:

People get excited in the beginning and everything is fresh. After spending a year writing and recording, to be able to switch it up and go back out on the road again, is always nice. I like having the diversity of either being in the studio or being on the road.

Favorite thing about being in love:

I’m not happy unless I am. It just feels empty. So it’s nice to have that.